Sunday, February 4, 2018

The Dogs by Allan Stratton

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch something moving by the barn.When I look, it disappears. Wait. There it is again, at the cornfield.

Some movement, some thing.

Mom and I have been on the run for years. Every time he catches up with us, we move to a new place and start over.But this place is different.This place is full of secrets. And they won't leave me alone.

So my son K saw the bookmark for this book in his school library and said: "hey mom you might like this book." His school didn't have the book but our local library did and I jumped at the chance to grab it. For a middle-grade book, it was actually pretty good. Cameron and his mother are always on the run from his father. They can never stay at a place for too long. This time they find a place in small town though where they end up moving too holds some secrets.

Cameron ends up finding himself trying to uncover the secrets that are buried at the farmhouse while trying to figure out if what he is seeing is real.

Along the way, he ends up with bullies picking on him because of where he lives and so school isn't too good for him. We see how Cameron deals with everything and how with the help of the ghosts his family can finally be at peace. Though his mom and her new "friend" are concerned with Cameron and how he is acting. Can he be turning out like his father?

The only reason I gave this book a 4 and not a 5 is because I was just a bit curious as to what information that Cameron's mother was to going to tell Cameron when he got older. I guess the nosey part of me just wanted to find out. Was it that his father has a mental disorder?

I would totally let my 11-year-old read this as it was not scary it was a good clean read!

ALLAN STRATTON is the internationally acclaimed author of CHANDA'S SECRETS, winner of the American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Honor Book, the Children's Africana Book Award, and ALA Booklist's Editor's Choice among others. His first YA novel was the ALA Best Book LESLIE'S JOURNAL. His latest, CHANDA'S WARS, a Junior Library Guild selection, won the Canadian Library Association's Young Adult Canadian Book Award, 2009, and is on the CCBC Best Books List. The German/South African film version of CHANDA'S SECRETS has been named an Official Selection of the 2010 Cannes International Film festival. the film title is LIFE ABOVE ALL. You can read about Allan's experiences on set on the December posts of his blog.Allan's new novel, BORDERLINE, a coming-of-age mystery/thriller, came out in March 2010 from HarperCollins with starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and raves in Booklist, Kirkus Reviews and Quill and quire..He loves to travel, cats and dogs, ice cream, working out, doing readings and workshops -- and, oh yes, meeting readers!

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